I wrote these two blogs for a potential client last year. The client loved them and wanted me to blog for him, but was only willing to offer peanuts for my work. What's up with people who think writers are worth so little?
So, you’ve met a new squeeze through an online dating service….
She’s hot!
She might be “the one!”
You’re smitten, and one date leads to another date, which leads to another date, but by the fourth date that magic starts wearing off….
By the fifth date you’re starting to think that maybe you’ve made a mistake. In fact, you might be wondering why you didn’t consider doing a background check on this woman, who just a week ago had you thinking weird domesticated thoughts like: I don’t need to go out with the boys Friday night, or Wow, check out the wheels on that baby stroller.
But now, as the prospect of your sixth date nears, has you thinking about how to disengage from this nascent relationship without causing undue stress.
Disengagement without losing an arm…or, possibly, a family pet.
Yeah, should have done a background check….
At least, that’s what the man from Thousand Oaks, California was probably thinking when his ex-online-girlfriend was found in his chimney last month.
Now we at xxxxalert.com are not saying that a background search in that case would have conclusively ruled out Genoveva Nunez-Figueroa as prime date material worthy of possible lifelong wedded bliss. But it could have provided warning signals. May have given that Thousand Oaks man enough information about his prospective date to make the relationship evolve more slowly….
Slow enough so that Genoveva would never have had any reason to end up in his chimney. Slow enough so that he might never have had any desire to date that woman…
…who ended up trying to break into his house by climbing down his chimney to do who knows what!
We’ll never know. But you can protect yourself from potential chimney-invading online dates by utilizing our services here at xxxxalert.com.
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Self Background Checks May Limit Damage from Identity Theft
Many people are confused about the concept of conducting a background check on themselves.
What? I’m not a criminal! or I haven’t done anything wrong! would be common responses to the notion.
But conducting a background check on yourself is perhaps as valuable to your peace of mind as the one you’re thinking about conducting on your daughter’s new boyfriend–the boyfriend who sports multiple piercings, has more ink in his skin than you have in your printer and said, “nice to meet you Daddy-O,” upon meeting you, while giving you a knuckle-bump to the forehead.
A background check on him might come up roses, but the one done on you may contain some potential thorns.
Consider that a 2012 study conducted by Javelin Strategy concluded that one in 20 Americans have been affected by identity theft, and that the Federal Trade Commission receives about 20,000 reports per week from consumers who’ve had their identities stolen.
And once your identity is stolen, the identity thief cannot only use that information to steal from you, but use your identity to abet his theft from others and make you appear to be the criminal.
The FBI’s website details the case of a Miami man whose identity was compromised for over 20 years. The victim’s driver’s license was suspended for driving infractions he did not do. He experienced trouble getting jobs due to records showing a felony conviction for a crime he did not commit. And he was denied a passport because the Department of State determined he already had one, even though he didn’t. All of this being the result of the identity thief’s use of the victim’s identity. And while the victim had filed a police report in 1989, the perpetrator was not caught until 2012.
Now we at xxxalert.com are not saying that a background report would have conclusively stopped the criminal from using the Miami man’s identity, but it may have mitigated the damage. Background checks would have allowed the victim to keep better track of how and where his identity was being used, information that could then be passed on to the police.
–Neither ever published, I’m sad to say….